Resident Evale
by Joker's Specter
Summary: AU-Alternate Universe Fic- A mysterious necromancer raises an army of mutated undead beings to attack the prosperous city of Vale. Felix an co. are stuck right in the middle of it, trying to survive one surprise after another. Read with caution.
1. White Night Fantasy

  


**_Resident Evale_**

**_Chapter One: White Night Fantasy _**

  


**By Joker's Specter**

**_WARNING: This story contains a lot of blood, gore, and scary images. Do NOT read if any of those things disturb or bother you. This is unlike any of my other stories, so don't expect any similarities. Read with caution._**

**_And also, this is an AU fic._**

**_I was inspired to write this upon completing Resident Evil 4, so you will probably notice a lot of similarities and jokes referring to that, as well as a few scenes taken directly from the game. In fact, it's almost better if you have played the game. In any case, most of it is all original stuff, spawned from the twisted parent that is my mind. The style is inspired by Post._**

**Special Thanks To: Sora G. Silverwind for not killing me over my terrible first draft, and for beta reading. Wuv uu, sis. :3  
-Joker**

* * *

**Disclaimer:** _Golden Sun is owned by **Nintendo** and **Camelot**. Resident Evil is owned by **Capcom**._

* * *

"_Myehehehehehe..._" 

"Hm..."

_tk...tk...tk..._

A small group of shadowy people sat at a metallic table, waiting patiently for their orders. None of them bothered to turn on a light in the pitch black room. The previous twenty minutes had been the same thing; they simply sat there, in the dark, not moving or doing much at all.

Other than the occasionally sigh, giggle, and the slow rhythm of something tapping against the table, nothing could be heard.

And even less could be seen.

_tk...tk...tk...tk..._

The mysterious rhythm echoed throughout the room, bouncing off the walls, interrupted only by the giddy laughter of the smallest figure at the table.

"_Hehehehehehehaha..._"

Suddenly, the room lit up brightly. A large screen on the nearest wall showed the blurry image of a man hiding his face inside a cloak. The light from the screen illuminated the room, showing off an entirely empty blue area, except for the table and three people sitting at it.

_tk...tk..._

"Agatio...are you ready?"

"_Eeeeehehehehehehe..._"

Agatio stood up quickly, staring at the screen the entire time. He hooked his ragged blue cape to his thick shoulder armor, and then nodded. "Yes, we're ready to move at your command, master." A grin spread across his face.

"And you, Saturos?"

_tk..._

Saturos stood up, ceasing tapping his knife on the table. He fastened his own cape onto his back, hooking it onto his much thinner body armor. Saturos had never felt the need to wear too much armor, as it slowed him down far too much. "I've been ready for the past four years," he answered, twirling his large knife around in his hand.

"Excellent..."

"You'd better keep your promise," Saturos added, staring hard at the screen.

"Mm... Yes, you will get your chance to confront Felix. I will make sure of it," the shadowy man on the screen said, nodding and causing his cloak to fall over his face more. "And..._you_--"

"_READY, SIR!_" the third figure shouted, jumping up into a standing position. He grinned, widening his black eyes. Despite having the appearance of a youth, he was actually quite a ferocious person. So ferocious, in fact, that he had to have his own hands reconstructed on a monthly basis because he always ended up eating them.

The man on the screen paused. "Yes...that's good. You, too, will have the chance to confront your past."

The youthful person licked his lips.

The shadow on the screen was silent for a moment, and then continued. "Everything will go according to plan. Don't screw up, or my dog will have your intestines for dinner."

The boyish figure giggled. "Mmmmmmmmm...that...sounds..._yummy!_" he murmured, poking at his stomach. "Gahahahahahaaaa..."

Saturos' hand twitched. The mention of intestines made him want to gut something...anything. He spun his knife around in his hand and closed his eyes.

Agatio just smirked.

"Well then, gentlemen," the cloaked shape said. "I trust you won't mess this up."

He paused, as if allowing time for the words sink into their minds.

"And," the cloaked figure added after a moment, "I hope you enjoy what awaits you..." His voice lowered a bit. "Vale will not know what hit them..." Chuckling to himself, he walked out of view.

And then the screen faded to black, leaving the room to be taken over by darkness once again.

The smallest of the three ran to the doors, which automatically opened and shed light into the room. He then ran out, shouting out in a sing-song voice, "Mmmm! Here I come! _Eeehehehahahahaha!_"

Agatio gathered up a few papers from the table and followed. Saturos stood still for a moment, still having his eyes shut.

"Hello, Felix..." he said, opening his eyes.

He stayed like that for a moment, not saying anything.

Shaking his head, he began to walk out of the room.

"Hello, _Felix..._ No, no... _Hello_, Felix..."

He shook his head again just as the doors shut behind him.

"I bet you didn't expect to see me here, did you, Felix?"

His footsteps slowly became more silent.

"My, my, Felix... What a surprise to see you here..."

The sounds of his footsteps disappeared, as did his practice speeches.

Vale's destruction was at hand.

**!-S- -K- -I- -R- -T-!  
!-N- -I- -N- -J- -A-!**

_VRRRR-RR-RR-RR-RR-rrrrrrrr..._

"Still nothing..." Garet muttered, kicking the bumper of the truck.

Felix bent down over the engine, causing his brown hair to fall over into his eyes. He pushed a few strands back as he pondered what to do next.

"Try again?" Isaac called from the driver's seat of the truck.

"Not yet!" Felix replied, using his other hand to poke around the engine with a wrench. "Garet, I need more light."

Garet nodded. He concentrated on his hand, already slightly alit with fire around his fingertips. With a clench of his fist, he summoned more Psynergy. The flames flared up around his hand, illuminating the area and casting dark, dancing shadows.

"You know...this probably isn't the best thing to be doing around a truck, Felix," Garet mused while staring at his hand. The specialized glove, made for mars adepts like him, almost appeared to be glowing from the flames. The flames themselves were an odd sight next to Garet; they appeared to be mimicking his hair.

_WHAM--CLANG!_

"What?" Felix asked after smacking the engine with a wrench. He stood up straight, and stared hard at the engine while listening to Garet.

Garet lowered his hand down to his side. "I mean, having flames around while you're working on the truck. I'm no mechanic, but aren't there a lot of flammable chemicals in there?"

"Yes," said Felix. He raised the wrench over his head again.

_WHAM--CLANG!_

"Just be careful," he added, looking back to Garet.

Garet just shook his head, smirking slightly. "Yeah, yeah... I gotcha."

"Good." Felix stuck his hand around the hood and gave Isaac a thumbs up signal. "Try it now!"

Isaac turned the ignition key again.

_VRRRR-RR-RR-RR-RR-rrrrrrrr...clk-clk-clk-clk..._

All three of them were silent for a moment.

Garet extinguished his hand, and then said, "Well...I don't know what that clicking sound is, but I'm assuming it's not good."

Felix shrugged. "I'm no mechanic either, actually, but it doesn't hurt to try."

"It wasn't clicking like that before," Garet moaned. "You broke it more, Felix!"

Shrugging again, Felix said, "That's fine with me. I'm up for a walk."

"Guh, when we get back to HQ, one of us is going to learn auto mechanics."

Isaac stuck his head out the driver's side window of the truck. "We giving up, then?" he asked, brushing a few strands of golden-blonde hair out of his eyes.

"Yep," Garet said as he walked around to the passenger side of the truck. He reached in and grabbed two swords, taking one for himself and the other for Felix.

"Right then," Isaac replied, grabbing his own sword and jumping out of the truck. "How far away is Vale?"

Felix squinted, looking hard through the night. "Well, I see the forest separating us from Vale right down there...so if we walk, it should be about two hours. We only just left Vault about half an hour ago, so that sounds about accurate."

Garet tossed Felix his sword, and began strapping his own onto his belt. He then reached into the truck and grabbed a few black padded jackets with the letters "SGV", which stood for "Specialist Guardians of Vale", or as Garet liked to say, "Sexy Guardians of Vale", stitched on the side of the arms.

"Here," he said, throwing one to Felix and another Isaac.

Isaac caught his and gazed at it. "It's not cold, Garet."

Garet smirked. "No, but the thin layer of metal and padding inside of these should be a good thing to have right about now, don't you think? I _really_ don't wanna go through that forest without it." He put it on and zipped it up. A pained expression crossed his face. "Last time I went through there with Aaron, he died because he didn't have one of these, remember?"

Everybody's thoughts turned back to the event that had happened about seven months ago. Garet staggered into the gates of Vale, cradling Aaron's bloodied corpse in his arms. His little brother had been attacked and killed by wolves, and he almost lost his own life recovering the body, had it not been for the sturdiness of the protective jacket. Garet insisted that Aaron would have been saved if he had also worn one.

"Hm...good idea," Felix said, sliding his arms into it. He left it unzipped, and then began to strap his sword onto his own belt.

Shrugging, Isaac put his own on and zipped it up about halfway over his white shirt.

"Let's keep a quick enough pace, guys," Felix said. The three of them set off at a brisk walking pace in the direction of the forest. What little moonlight there was that remained quickly disappeared behind a thick layer of dark clouds. Felix looked up and stared at the dim glowing spot behind the clouds for a while as he walked, silently wishing the clouds would move on quickly. Even though the landscape was mostly just a clear field, with a few areas of trees and rocks dotting it every now and then, there were still plenty of places for enemies to hide in the cover of the darkness.

He didn't know how much time had passed since he and the others abandoned the truck, but he was quickly snapped out of his wishful state when he heard sounds approaching to the left of him. He broke his gaze away from the moon and swiveled his head to look in the direction the sounds were coming from.

Something approaching fast. Very fast.

A car.

Felix saw the headlights appear over a hill a good distance away to his left. Both Isaac and Garet had heard it too, and all three of them stopped walking to watch the car.

"What in Weyard...?" Garet muttered, speaking the minds of both Felix and Isaac as well.

The car swerved left and right, narrowly dodging lone trees and rocks. The Adepts had no idea what was going on; it looked as if the driver had never driven before.

The car's rear end suddenly jerked, and the vehicle spun into a small group of trees.

_CRAASSHHH!_

The three Adepts watched in surprise as the car's front rammed into a tree trunk. They gaped even more when the tree actually tipped over from the impact, ripping its thick, wet roots from the soil.

"Come on!" Felix shouted, not willing to waste any time as he began to dash for the car, with Isaac and Garet following closely behind.

Moments later, Felix reached the car, and headed straight for the driver side door. Isaac and Garet reached the scene a few seconds after. Since it was dark, they couldn't see much except for what the headlights were shining on, so Garet used his Psynergy to light the nearest tree on fire.

Isaac glared at Garet, but decided it was best not to start an argument at the moment.

"What is it? What happened?" Garet asked, ignoring Isaac's glaring and running up beside Felix.

Felix's eyes shot wide open as he stared in horror.

His mouth shut tightly.

His breath caught in his throat.

The driver, who now had half of the steering wheel lodged into his face...was armless from the shoulder joints down.

Blood gushed out of what remained of his arms, pooling onto the seat and floor.

Felix's heart pounded against his chest. He scanned the car for anything else of importance that he may have been able to see from where he was standing, and then turned away as fast as he could.

Isaac stepped up to peek inside, instantly regretting doing so.

Garet just stood still, staring at the poor soul. "His arms...were eaten?" he asked quietly.

Felix shook his head. "Look on the passenger side."

Garet tilted his head a bit to get a better view of the other side of the car.

Two arms lay on the floor, creating a small pool of blood around them.

Isaac was shaking his head. "Ripped right off," he muttered to himself. "No signs of being cut or anything,just...pulled apart from his body." He bit his lip. "I don't want to run into whatever can do that..."

And then Garet bent over and vomited.

Felix shut his eyes and let out a breath. Ever since Aaron's gruesome death, Garet had become sensitive to blood and gore. He used to be able to handle it just fine. Now, he just acted like he could.

Isaac put his hands on Garet's back. "You okay?" he asked quietly.

Wiping his mouth off, Garet nodded and pushed Isaac's hand away. "Yeah, yeah. I'm fine. Let's just get back to Vale. I don't think we can do anything here, right Felix?"

"Not unless we can find out what did that to the driver. We should probably search the rest of the car, I suppose... Be on guard," Felix said, opening his eyes. He unsheathed his sword and walked around to the other side of the car.

"It had to have been small." Isaac gingerly lifted the trunk of the car, as though he were expecting that same creature to leap out at him. "It would have had to fit in the car, right?"

Felix inspected the outside of the car. "Possibly...I'm wondering how the steering wheel managed to...get so far pressed into his face... The crash wasn't that hard."

"Maybe whatever did that to his arms also mashed his face into the steering wheel?" Garet suggested.

"I don't get it... What's the purpose?" Isaac pondered, looking around the back of the car. He tapped the inside of the trunk a few times with his sword, finding nothing of importance.

Felix poked his head in through the passenger side window. "I think this man was deceased before the crash. There's a brick down by his foot...do you see that, Garet?"

Garet looked up at the man's feet, by the gas pedal and break of the car. "Yes..." he said. His eyes rest on a brick, sitting off to the side of the gas pedal. "You think someone had the car going with that?"

"That's my guess," Felix replied. He pulled his head out of the window. "Whatever did this could be anywhere by now. It's pointless to search at the moment, considering we have to get these papers to the Mayor of Vale." He patted his pocket.

"The renewed treaty with Vault?" Isaac asked, slamming the trunk shut.

"Yeah. Let's hurry and get back. I'll contact HQ in a moment to let them know of this so they can send a crew out as soon as possible," Felix said.

Garet stood up straight and looked directly at Felix. "Wait a second, you mean you've had a radio with you the entire time?"

"Yes." Felix reached into a pocket on the leg of his pants and pulled out a black radio.

"Well, why the heck aren't you calling them and telling them to send transport for us?" Garet exclaimed.

Felix smiled, and began walking towards the dark forest in the distance. "I already told you. I'm up for a walk."

**!-S- -K- -I- -R- -T-!  
!-N- -I- -N- -J- -A-!**

The three Adepts walked towards the forest, now at a faster pace than before.The darkest clouds in the sky seemed to cover the moon, making the Adepts uneasy. Garet muttered loudly to himself about getting home faster. Isaac and Felix stayed alert.

"Man, I don't like this," Garet moaned, his copper eyes darting from side to side. "Anything could leap out of those trees and rip our throats out at any second!"

"So?" Felix said. "That's what our swords are for."

"They have sucky reach, though. I'm talking about heavy artillery—M16's and Kalashnikovs!" Garet mimed a shooting action, using his sword as a stand-in rifle. "Wham! Bam! Alakazam! I'd have those suckers down before you can say 'lunch.'"

Felix's gaze traveled to his own sword—a family heirloom. "Well, even though we're allies with Vault at the moment, we still aren't allowed to carry anything other than a sword into town. Security reasons and such. We'd need the go-ahead from their government."

Garet looked sour. "And I'm guessing we still don't have that okay, huh?"

"That's correct."

"Gah... That really sucks. First, they send us on this stupid mission, which should be work for another division of our government, _not_ the Guardians. _Then_, they don't even allow us to wield what we use best!"

"Garet," Isaac said, "I actually am better with a sword than a gun."

Garet smirked. "Well, your aim is terrible. You don't count. Sorry, bud."

Isaac just chose to ignore the comment.

Continuing his complaints, Garet added, "And what's with these late hours?" He looked up at the moon. "I mean, seriously, what time is it? I should be in bed by now, not out here finding people with their arms ripped off!"

Felix glanced at Garet for a moment. "So just quit if it's so difficult."

Garet grinned. "Yeah, that'd be the smart thing to do, huh? Ah, well, even though there's a lot to hate about this job, I still love it...most of the time. Right now is a _huge_ exception." His thoughts returned yet again to the horrific scene he had seen in that car.

Isaac slowed down a bit, locking his eyes on an area to his left.

"Then will you just stop complaining, Garet?" Felix said in a frustrated tone. "It sounds like you're complaining just so you can hear your own voice, yeesh..."

Grinning a little less now, Garet said, "Well...nothing wrong with talking, is there? It helps keep me focused."

Felix looked behind him, and then stopped walking. "Oh yeah? If you're so focused, did you notice that Isaac's not with us anymore?"

Garet stopped as well, and then looked over to where Isaac stood about ten feet behind them. He was staring directly at one area, and not moving at all.

"Isaac? What are you doing?" Garet asked.

There was no response.

"Hey, Isaac! What's up?"

"Shh," Felix said, pressing his gloved hand against Garet's mouth. Grease from the truck's engine smeared all over his mouth from the glove.

Garet grunted in disgust and pulled his head back away from Felix's glove.

"What is he doing?" Garet asked in a whisper.

Felix followed Isaac's gaze, turning his head to look across a river.

He held his breath when he saw what Isaac was looking at.

"What is it?" Garet asked again, desperately wanting to know the situation.

"Across the river," was all Felix said.  
Garet looked to the other side of the river to their left, and spotted four dark figures wandering awkwardly in the direction of the forest. They were barely visible in the dark night.

"Ugh...a few drunks?" Garet asked, squinting.

"No, I'm almost certain they're zombies. And take a look behind them..." Isaac finally said quietly, surprising both Felix and Garet.

Felix narrowed his eyes and just barely saw what Isaac was talking about. Almost blending in with the darkness, dim red eyes could be seen everywhere. Dozens upon dozens of them were visible. Not only were there zombies, but many different types of undead creatures or hideous mutants.

"Oh..." Garet said, a little surprised. "I see...there's...a lot of them."

Felix reached into his pocket and grabbed the radio. He hoped to get in contact with Vale. A quick attack with some reinforcements could take out a few dozen monsters easily.

He flipped on the radio.

_BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE--_

The radio made a loud, monotonous tone. Felix almost dropped the radio in surprise.

_--EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE--_

"Turn it off!" Garet said as he covered his ears.

_--EEEEEEEEE!_

Felix shut the radio off, and then examined it, wondering what had gone wrong with it.

"Guys!" Isaac shouted. "The zombies, they see us!"

The zombies growled among each other, saying things almost coherent enough for the Adepts to understand, but not quite.

And then they attacked.

The closest monsters ran towards the men, crying out orders to attack. The rest of the creatures who were visible soon followed.

"_Run! I'll hold them off!_" Isaac shouted, pointing to the forest. Felix whipped his head around to see a clear path through the forest, which was the best escape route at the moment, and would take them to Vale eventually.

Garet and Felix exchanged looks.

"You go. I'll help him," Felix said, unsheathing his sword. "Get to Vale and warn the others, just in case. There could be a lot of them...and I doubt that an army of undead creatures will just choose to sit around out here over attacking Vale..."

Nodding, Garet spun on his heels and bolted across the dark landscape into the forest. He paused only momentarily to light himself a torch using a branch from the ground and his Mars Psynergy.

Isaac turned around to look at his friend run off, and then grabbed the handle of his sword firmly. "Felix? Why aren't you going?" he inquired, even though he knew the answer.

"You honestly think I'd just leave you here to fight _them_ all by yourself?" he asked, pointing across the river to the approaching horde of undead monsters. Dozens of ugly abominations were approaching, with many more following closely behind.

It would only a matter of time before they all reached Vale, which Felix assumed was their ultimate goal, judging by the direction they were heading before.

Hideous moans and hissing sounds rang out from the enemy wave as they ran towards the two venus adepts.

"No time to talk!" Felix said as he took a few steps backwards.

He closed his eyes, and a dull yellow glow engulfed his body.

Isaac raised his sword up to chest level, preparing himself for battle.

"_GAIA!_" Felix shouted, extending his hand upward. The ground immediately began to shake.

_R-R-R-RUMBLE!_

The small group of undead creatures who were closing in on the two adepts stopped in their tracks. The earth beneath them shook violently.

_C-CRACKKK!_

The ground split open, sending tiny rays of light out in various directions.

_FWOOOOMMMM!_

A blinding beam of light burst out from the ground. Chunks of the earth flew upwards as the beam engulfed the closest creatures, throwing them into the air.

_FL-FLASH!_

The beam of light flickered twice before disappearing almost completely.

_SPLCH! FWUMP! WHAM!_

Bodies and pieces of monsters rained down, splattering into the hard ground.

A couple of the monsters struggled to get up, despite missing a few key parts of their body.

"...I don't think we'll have enough Psynergy for this," Isaac muttered, pointing his gloved fingers beyond the river.

The dim light that remained from Felix's attack showed hundreds upon hundreds of creatures, many of which Felix had never before seen in his life.

His heart thumped against his chest.

"Oh no..." he muttered.

The undead horde began moving again at top speed across the grassy field, plowing straight through the shallow river, and towards the adepts.

Their eyes flashed as they ran towards them in a violent rage.  
Their battle cries rang out through the night.

Arms were reaching outward.

Reaching for the Adepts.

Ready to kill on contact.

Felix shivered.

"Isaac?"

"What?"

"...wanna run?"

"I think that would be best."

The two wasted no time in fleeing. They pumped their legs hard, running for the forest. It would take a while to get to Vale, even if they ran the entire way.

Which is what they _really_ wanted to do.

"_Ssssscrrreeeeeee!_"

Isaac looked behind them just in time to see some sort of undead creature with wings swooping down at them. Its red eyes widened as it opened its mouth wide and extended its small arms, revealing black fangs and claws.

"_DUCK!_" Isaac shouted, tackling Felix to the ground right in front of the entrance to the forest.

_FWIIIISH--WHAM!_

The creature's claws barely missed Isaac's back as it flew past and collided directly into a tree. Isaac's hair blew around wildly from the gust of wind caused by the creature.

Isaac glanced up and watched the creature's body fall to the ground.

"C'mon, let's get into the trees before they can do that again!" Isaac yelled, jumping to his feet.

Felix stood up and they both began running again, entering into the dark forest.

Dead, decaying trees flew by as the adepts ran. Everything Felix saw gave him the image that the trees were reaching for him.

Grasping for him.

Trying to stop him.

He ran faster.

"So," Isaac said, a few minutes after entering the forest. He panted heavily, dodging trees while sticking close to Felix. "What's the plan?"

Felix didn't have time to reply.

Isaac's eyes suddenly went wide. "Felix! Watch out for that--!"

_FWAP!_

His body fell to the ground.

Isaac skidded to a halt and turned to look at Felix. "...tree branch?"

Felix mumbled something angrily in the dirt.

"Are you okay?" Isaac asked, running up next to him.

Felix sat up and nodded, closing his eyes and biting his lip. A moment later, he said, "Yeah, I'm fine. I can barely see a thing in this forest...and everything I _do_ see, I don't _want_ to see."

He winced in pain.

"...yeah, we really need a plan. I'm starting to regret having Garet run ahead," Isaac replied, helping Felix to his feet.

"Heh...in the long run, it might be best. He'll be warning Vale of this attack, after all."

"Yeah..."

Felix looked around. The dark, eerie forest had always made him feel like he was a helpless child again. Nothing could be heard of the horde of creatures, no matter how hard he listened.

Absolutely nothing.

He shivered.

"I don't know what's making me more nervous right now...the lack of light, or the lack of sound. I stopped hearing them a while ago," Felix said while gripping his sheathed sword tightly.

Isaac shrugged and looked behind them. "Maybe they stopped chasing us at the edge of the forest."

"Maybe...but that doesn't sound likely. I'm still curious as to why we're under attack in the first place." Felix flinched and removed his hand from his face. "Guh...this hurts less than it would if they caught up to us. Let's keep going..."

Suddenly, the silence of the area was shattered, as a new, terrifying sound could be heard.

_thump-thump-thump-thump--_

The sound of trees being ripped from the ground and falling over could barely be heard over the thumping sound. Tiny pebbles bounced up and down on the ground at Felix's feet each time the frightening sound was heard.

"What the heck?" Isaac exclaimed, spinning around to look in the direction the sound was coming from.

_--thump-thump-thump--_

"Something's coming..." Felix whispered.

_--thump-thump-thump-thump-THUMP--_

Isaac could have sworn it was his heart that was making the sound. He held his breath. "Those can't be footsteps...can they?" he asked, almost whimpering.

_--THUMP-THUMP-THUMP-**THUMP-THUMP**--_

_--**THUMP-THUMP-THUMP-THUMP!**_

They both watched in horror as two trees were knocked over, followed by the appearance of a gigantic ogre-like creature, which appeared to be about three times the size of Felix. It snarled, twitching its nose and sniffing the area, realizing it had found exactly what it was looking for.

Felix's eyes widened.

The creature looked as if all of its skin had been stripped right off of its body. Rough muscle tissue could be seen everywhere.

Its red eyes glared at the two adepts.

It threw its large bald head back.

"_GRRAAAAAAAAAUUUUUGGGHHHHH!_"

It cried out, letting its allies know that he had caught up to the adepts.

"_MOVE IT!_" Felix shouted, grabbing Isaac's scarf and tugging him back.

The skinless ogre acted quickly.

It bent over, pointing its back upwards.

The muscle tissue on its back ruptured and bubbled rapidly.

"_RAAAAGGGHHHH!_"

A section running down the center of its back suddenly began to stretch and rip open slightly, spilling out blood down the creature's back.

_SLLURRR-**POP!**_

The huge creature's back split open entirely, showering the area with red slime.

Dozens of thick tentacles sprouted out from its back, uncurling and waving around in the air wildly while flicking more warm slime all over the place.

Isaac and Felix were speechless, frozen in place.

The pair snapped out of their trances, turned around, and attempted to continue their escape.

The tentacles shot out in every direction, wrapping a around a circle of trees and creating a wall-like structure around the small area with adepts and itself.

"Oh, _great_!" Isaac said sarcastically. He yanked his sword out of its sheath, tossed it up into the air, and caught it by the handle, preparing himself for the task of cutting down the tentacles. He'd choose that over facing the monster any day.

Felix knew what Isaac was going to attempt, and decided to buy him some time.

Placing his palms on the ground, he closed his eyes and concentrated.

"_SPIRE!_"

His hands glowed.

The ground around them shook.

_R-RUMBLE!_

A large, sharp, jagged rock shot upwards underneath the skinless ogre, reaching to about its knees. Acting as quickly as it could, it leaped backwards.

Felix put more force into his attack, digging his gloved fingers into the ground. The stone spire shook violently and suddenly launched upwards again, even faster and with more force than before.

The ground ripped open where it was bursting through, sending dirt flying everywhere.

The ogre jumped back again, barely getting nicked in the chin by the point of the stone spire. Blood trailed down its neck, mixing with its visible muscles.

"_GRAARRRGH!_" the creature shouted, throwing a fist into the spire. A large chunk of it shattered off of the top, sending pieces of it flying everywhere. Felix held up his hand to block a few from hitting his face.

Isaac, meanwhile, had begun hacking at the tentacle wall with his sword, trying to cut through.

_THWACK!_

"_It's--_"

_THWACK!_

"_--not--_

_THWACK!_

"_--CUTTING!_"

His sword bounced off the tentacle wall every time, barely managing to leave an imprint in it.

Felix turned around and said, "Keep trying, I'll see what I can do about him!" After pausing for a moment, he added, "If you can't break through, we'll just have to try to our hardest to kill him!"

He looked back just in time to see a huge fist flying in his direction. The skinless creature launched a punch right at Felix. Because of the tentacles, he couldn't move much, but his arms reached far enough to get to Felix.

Grunting in surprise, Felix leaped to the side, and rolled out of the way.

_FWAMMM!_

Felix dodged the attack just in time. The creature's fist slammed into a tree instead, knocking it over.

Brushing some hair out of his eyes, Felix looked from the tree to the creature, and quickly formed an idea.

The ogre-like creature's eyes stared hard at him, almost glowing in the dark night. Felix could only vaguely see his figure, illuminated just barely by the small amount of moonlight that shown through the trees.

Felix sheathed his sword. He needed to be able to move quickly.

"Isaac, get ready to dodge this!" Felix shouted, running up next to his friend.

Isaac looked at him with a confused expression. "What?" he asked, breathing heavily.

Pointing towards the creature, Felix shouted, "_Dodge his attack!_"

Turning to look at the huge monster, Isaac widened his eyes and gasped.

The creature was pulling its fist back, ready to throw a punch right at the two adepts.

It put all of its weight on its right leg, pulling its fist back even further.

Felix's heartbeat felt like the only thing that was going fast to him at the time. Everything else felt like it was in slow motion.

The creature lunged forward.

Obeying Felix's orders, Isaac jumped back.

The large fist flew towards them, rocketing through the dark air.

Felix jumped back as well.

The creature didn't have time to stop.

Its fist collided directly into the tentacle wall.

_**SPLISSHHHH!**_

In a sickening rain of dark blood, most of the tentacles split apart. The pieces that were ripped off began twitching on the ground, while the tentacles still connected to the creature began flailing in the air wildly, showering blood all over the place.

_**"GRRAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUGGGGHHHHHH!"**_ the creature cried out in pain. He pounded his fists on the ground, and then began throwing them around the area, shattering the spire and knocking down trees.

Isaac and Felix wasted no time, and began to run, hoping to get to Vale before anything else showed up.

* * *

**End:** _Chapter One_

* * *


	2. Moondance

_**Resident Evale**_

_**Chapter Two: Moondance**_

**By Joker's Specter**

**Again, special thanks to Sora for beta-reading. She did an amazing job at it. I'll try to update this a little bit faster next time. Don't worry, it's not writer's block, just life getting in the way. :)  
-Joker**

* * *

**Disclaimer:** _Golden Sun is owned by **Nintendo** and **Camelot**. Resident Evil is owned by **Capcom**._

* * *

"_Craaaaaaaaa!_"

A shiver ran down Felix's back. A small, black crow screeched at him and Isaac as they bolted underneath the branch the bird was perched on. The pair ran side by side, only separating for moments when they had to side-step a tree. Picking up speed, their muddy boots dug into the soft ground. A new chill flooded the air, brought on by the sense of an even more ominous threat.

"So," panted Isaac as he darted past trees with Felix right beside him, "you never told me if you have a plan or not."

Felix listened yet again to the cries of the skinless ogre they had just fled from. He shuddered inwardly, and said, "My idea, originally, was to get to Vale. The two of us fighting--"

"Branch," Isaac warned.

After ducking under the tree branch that Isaac had pointed out he was about to run into, Felix finished his sentence between breaths. "The two of us fighting an entire army of undead would just be ridiculous."

"So we're just going to play the survival game until we get to headquarters?"

"Yeah, that's about it."

Felix paused in his explanation to jump over a fallen tree. Isaac leaped after him, but stumbled upon landing. Felix turned around and caught Isaac before he fell.

"Thanks," muttered Isaac, brushing some of his golden hair out of his eyes with a quick swipe of his hand.

"Don't mention it," Felix said. They broke into a run again. After a short silence, Felix continued. "That's the plan, unless you have any other ideas."

Isaac had no response for Felix, and so their conversation faded away. The atmosphere around them consumed their senses.

Tree branches scraped at their arms and legs, the chilly air froze the breath in their lungs, and the darkness clouded their vision.

Other than their labored breathing, the only other sounds that could be heard were owls hooting and various other nocturnal creatures greeting the night with their cries.

At that moment, they realized that the yells of pain coming from the large creature could no longer be heard. Felix and Isaac exchanged worried glances. Their heartbeats increased rapidly; the cold silence frightened them even more than the thunderous cries of the ogre.

"Does...does the radio work?" Isaac whispered, throwing a glance to the black radio clipped to Felix's belt.

They both slowed down to a walking speed. Felix pulled the radio off his belt and turned it on. He sighed in relief when no loud beeps issued forth from the device. Smiling, he flipped the volume to the max and spoke. "HQ, this is Felix, I need assistance," he said while trying to catch his breath. Beside him, Isaac fidgeted as he glanced, wide-eyed, around the surrounding area.

"Do you copy, HQ? I repeat, this is Felix. We've got an emergency. Over."

The Adepts of the Specialist Guardians of Vale were no weak force. Though they were a small group, consisting only of six field members, they had the power to rival a non-Psynergetic military squad with twice the men who were armed to the teeth with weaponry. In addition to their Psynergy, their close ties to the Valean militia allowed them to secure weapons and vehicles that made them even more lethal. Those, combined with their unique attributes, led them to be extremely successful in carrying out the tasks assigned to them by the Government.

But they were always cautious...sometimes _too_ cautious. Vale's Government took advantage of their talents to the fullest on a daily basis, but would never send their most elite forces to certain death. If a situation seemed hopeless or pointless by their standards, the members of the SGV would retreat, allowing them to use their abilities for future assignments. Felix knew the risk of death for him and Isaac was too high to try to fight off the horde of undead. Escaping was the only option.

Fear was the SGV's main weapon, and when they had it turned against them in full force, escape was always the first thing on their minds. For all their power, the SGV were really a bunch of weaklings.

"Felix, this is HQ. We read you, over," came a garbled reply.

Felix closed his eyes and sighed. "Good, good, thank Venus," he whispered, wiping sweat from his forehead.

"Ask for Piers," Isaac said, staying alert. "Maybe he can get his squad over here to assist us."

Felix nodded and spoke into the radio again. "Is Piers there?"

There was silence on the other end.

Felix and Isaac exchanged nervous glances.

"I said, is Piers there?" Felix repeated, running his hand through his bangs and looking around. "We can't stay here long."

There was a click, followed by, "Oh, sorry, you didn't say 'over', over."

Isaac rolled his eyes. "It's Ivan."

"Ivan, we don't have time for this!" Felix shouted.

The radio crackled a bit. "Look, Felix, just because I'm trying to follow protocol doesn't give you a reason to snap at me. You--"

"Get me Piers," Felix interrupted. "We need to talk to him, _over_."  
"Piers is out doing field work right now with his squad. Over," Ivan said, sounding offended.

Not wasting any time, Felix moved on. "Did Garet get ahold of you?"

There was a short pause. "Uh", Ivan stuttered, realizing that Felix wasn't going to follow protocol at the moment, "yeah, he did. He's reached the guardhouse outside of the forest, and he's being transported to Vale's gates right now, over."

"Did he let you know about our situation?"

Isaac paced around the area, straying further and further from Felix to explore more.

The radio clicked. "Yes," Ivan said, "He said there was the possibility of an attack on Vale by a small group of zombies--"

"_Large_ group," Felix cut in. "And they're not normal zombies...these ones can run like a regular human if they need to. There's more than just zombies, too; it's an army of undead creatures. We believe they're headed right for Vale."

_FWUMP!_

Isaac and Felix both jumped and turned towards the source of the sound they'd just heard.

The radio crackled in Felix's hand.

_BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE--_

"Not again!" Felix exclaimed through clenched teeth as the radio began emitting the ear-piercing pitch. He turned the volume off on the radio, and slid it onto his belt.

"Felix, there," Isaac said, pointing to a spot on the ground thirty yards away from them.

It was difficult to see through the darkness, but Felix could make out the image of something dark laying on the ground. He watched in horror as what appeared to be a corpse, broken and dried up, climbed to its feet. "What in the--"

**_FWUMP!_**

Felix stumbled backwards and nearly fell over. Something had fallen from the sky and landed directly in front of him and Isaac on the ground. A vague smell filled the air--the smell of a rotting cadaver. His eyes focused on the thing in front of him.

"Isaac..." he heard himself say. A snarl escaped the creature's mouth as it began to raise itself to its feet. The glowing eye sockets of a decaying zombie met his own eyes.

"_SKREEEEEEE!_"

Felix and Isaac gasped and looked up at the sky. Countless large flying creatures, just like the one that attacked the Adepts before they had entered the forest, were flying over the trees like gray storm clouds, their giant leathery wings flapping silently as they did so.

"An assault from the sky...!" Felix exclaimed loudly, clenching his teeth and placing his hand on the hilt of his sword.

Circling around the area, the creatures stared down at the Adepts, screeching and snarling at them in unison, like high-pitched thunder. Their long tongues snaked out of their mouth, and their red, glowing eyes--a trait seen in nearly every creature Felix and Isaac had encountered so far--flashed in the dark sky. Small spines ran from the top of their skulls to the tip of their long, snaking tails. Nearly every detail about them seemed fearsome.

However, the most shocking thing about the bat-like creatures was that each of them was carrying a zombie in their talons.

The flying beasts hissed.

All at once, they unclenched their talons.

Like a flood of water from dark storm clouds, zombies rained from the sky.

Dozens of them fell, landing all around Felix and Isaac. The ground proved soft enough for them to land...and to get right back up again. An unfortunate few landed in the surrounding trees, their weak bodies breaking apart on impact.

Felix and Isaac stood back to back as numerous zombies climbed to their feet. Their hollow eye sockets flashed red when they noticed the two Adepts, and they began walking towards them, their bony, rotting fingers outstretched.

Both Felix and Isaac unsheathed their swords. Isaac rolled his sleeves halfway up his arms--somewhat of a habit for him when he was preparing for battle.

"Preserve as much Psynergy as possible; we may need it later," Felix ordered.

"Right," Isaac replied, and then quickly adding, "Do we run?"

The nearest zombie lunged at Felix, not allowing him to answer. Its hollow eyes widened, and its mouth opened. A few spiders crawled out of its eye sockets, which were glowing red with an internal flame. Its freezing cold fingers were inches from his throat.

_swisshh--SPLCH!_

Felix beheaded it with a simple slash of his sword. The blade cut easily through the remaining muscle tissue and bone. The head bounced away into a pile of leaves, while the body stumbled and twitched right beside Felix, and collapsed to the ground.

The other zombies moved closer, circling the pair.

A few mumbles were exchanged between them.

Suddenly, three attacked at once.

Two went for Isaac, stretching out their arms for him. Isaac acted quickly, burying his sword through the throat of one, only to have the other zombie grab onto his left arm. Grunting in pain, Isaac lifted up his left foot and slammed it into the zombie's chest, which was followed by a sick crunching sound. The zombie's chest shattered, held together only by what remained of his skin and muscles, and he fell backwards to the ground.

Felix grabbed his sword in both hands and swung right at the remaining zombie approaching him, catching it in the side with the blade.

_SCRNCH!_

The zombie's dry body was cut in half, and both halves promptly hit the ground. Moaning, the zombie twitched its arms and legs for a moment before it finally went still.

Pulling his sword out of the other zombie's throat, Isaac sliced at him again as soon as it was free and sent the creature flying into a tree.

Not even getting a few seconds to relax, Isaac and Felix saw the other zombies rushing forward. All of the remaining zombies, about twenty of them, surrounded them and closed in.

"Crap, Isaac--spire!" Felix ordered.

"I'm on it!" Isaac shouted, spinning his sword around and thrusting it into the mud beneath him as deep as he could get it. He gripped the hilt, bowed his head, and closed his eyes. Soon, both his sword and body began to glow brightly, casting a golden light onto the approaching zombie army. His scarf and hair flapped wildly, moving faster and faster as the light gradually intensified.

A few daring zombies approached Isaac's glowing form. Felix moved between them and his companion.

_fwii--CRUNCH!_

Felix did a roundhouse kick and sent the head of the nearest zombie flying through the air, along with chunks of mud from his boot. Regaining his stance, he sliced through two more zombies with his sword.

"_Rain of Earth--**CLAY SPIRE!**_" Isaac yelled, pulling his sword out of the ground and pointing it straight up into the sky. His voice echoed, as if he were somewhere else far away.

_R-R-RUMMMBLE--CRRACCCKKK!_

Almost immediately, the ground ripped apart. Tiny chunks of it launched into the sky and began to form into dozens of sharp stalactites. As soon as the first wave was formed, they rocketed downwards, raining onto the zombies.

_FWAM! CRNCH!_

The storm of sharp rocks split through heads and bodies of the zombies. The zombies hissed in surprised as one-by-one they were killed off by the rapid attack.

Felix moved as close to Isaac as possible to avoid the sharp spires, and kept his sword raised to defend Isaac from any surprise attacks.

_WHAM! SPLAT!_

Zombies slammed to the ground. Larger spires created small craters, splattering pieces of the zombies all over the area.

After the third wave of raining rocks, Isaac's body lost its glow, and the ground stopped shaking. The small chunks of rock that were hovering in the air dropped down without being formed into missiles.

Isaac bent over his sword, catching his breath. "Did...did I get them all?" he gasped, breathing heavily.

Felix helped Isaac up. "For now, yeah." He looked up at the sky, and sighed in relief when he saw nothing flying around up there. "They know where we are, so we'll have to get moving." He pulled out a compass

"Yeah," Isaac muttered, sheathing his sword. He looked down at his left arm, where the zombie had grabbed him, and frowned. " What the..."

"Mmm?" Felix had pulled out a compass and was busy trying to figure out which direction to go in.

"Look at this--a zombie grabbed me here." Isaac held up his arm to show Felix. A swollen, red hand print could clearly be seen where the zombie had grabbed onto Isaac's arm.

Felix blinked, and grabbed Isaac's arm carefully to examine it.

"It doesn't hurt much, but I can still feel that something's wrong," Isaac said, turning his arm around to show Felix the entire mark.

"Hmm... Well, I guess you can just wrap it for now." He let go of Isaac's arm and glanced at his compass again. "We need to hurry, so if you can wrap it as we run, that'd be the best thing to do. I'm no medical officer, so I can't tell you what that is."

Isaac smirked. "I guess I shouldn't let you near it, then," he said, pulling his scarf off. "You're no mechanic, either, and you broke our truck."

Felix narrowed his eyes and looked up from the compass. "I didn't break it," he insisted. "It was already broken."

"Yeah, yeah," replied Isaac, quickly wrapping his scarf around his arm.

"This way," Felix said, and he took off running, with Isaac close behind.

They both silently prayed that nothing else stood between them and vale.

**!-S- -N- -K- -K- -T-!  
!-S- -N- -K- -K- -T-!**

_FWISH!_

In a refreshing moment of relief, Isaac and Felix burst through the trees, running into open air and a large, grassy, field that stretched as far as the eye could see. The grass grew tall in most areas, sometimes even growing as tall as a person. A large sense of relief hit both of them as they stopped in waist-deep grass.

"We made it," panted Isaac, bending over and resting his hands on his knees.

"There," Felix said immediately, pointing to their left. A small guardhouse sat nestled against the trees about a quarter of a mile away from them. A single light was turned on near a metal door. "We'll go there first and see if we can contact HQ--"

"Because your radio sucks," Isaac interrupted.

"...because my radio isn't _working properly_," Felix said pointedly, glaring at Isaac. "That's where Ivan said Garet had made it. Also, the road to Vale _should_ be there...right?"

"Right."

Felix couldn't help but smile, and started running towards the guardhouse. Isaac followed close behind, watching the forest to his left closely every now and then.

Once they reached the guardhouse, they threw open the metal door and scurried in, slamming it shut behind them.

It was dark.

It was empty.

It was cold.

Within seconds, they met trouble again.

_WHUNK!_

"Ow! Isaac! Watch where you're going!"

"Er, sorry... Your hair isn't very cushiony."

"Shh. Help me find a light."

"Make sure you keep your hands on the wall, Felix. I don't want you groping me and blaming it on the darkness."

"Quiet. This isn't the time to be joking around, Isaac."

"Yeah, yeah...I'm just trying to lighten the mood.

"Let's just try to lighten the room, first."

"Right. Did we check by the door?"

"No, we didn't...because you ran into me and knocked us away from it." _WHAM!_

"Agh! I think I just fell over a desk!"

_click_

The room lit up with a flick of Felix's hand. Just as he had thought, the light switch was by the door. His eyes wandered over to Isaac, who was picking himself up off of the floor from behind a brown computer desk.

"Ah ha, nice job," Isaac said with a large grin on his face.

Felix looked around the tiny room. The entire place looked to be about twenty feet in length and ten feet in width. The only piece of furniture in the room that the two hadn't run into yet was a large cabinet pushed against one of the corners. The brown desk sat near the other end of the room with a black telephone and three camera monitors and a sitting on it. The monitors showed the entrance to the forest, the edge of the road, and outside of the guardhouse door. Nothing threatening could be seen in any of them. A filing cabinet and a small refrigerator filled up the rest of the room. On top of the filing cabinet sat a chart attached to a clipboard. Felix grabbed the clipboard and looked at it.

"What's that?" Isaac asked as he sat in the desk chair and glanced at all three monitors.

"Time chart for guard duty," Felix replied quietly. "Looks like only one guard was working here when Garet arrived. He must be the one driving Garet back to Vale."

Isaac leaned back in the chair. "That's nice of him. No transport for us."

"So use the phone and call HQ," Felix ordered.

"Yes sir." Rolling his eyes, Isaac picked up the black phone from the desk and dialed the number for HQ.

Felix walked over to the supply cabinet and opened it up. After a quick look inside, he fixed his eyes on Isaac's, who was waiting for somebody to pick up. "Guns," he mouthed, smiling.

Isaac sighed, looking annoyed. He despised using guns; they rarely hit where he was aiming. Even so, he knew firearms would be the best chance at survival right now.

"Specialist Guardians of Vale Headquarters, how may I help you?" said the person who answered the phone.

As Isaac went through their situation again with the receptionist, Felix pulled out a few guns from the cabinet. Two 12-gauge pump-action riot shotguns, and two GLOCK 18 handguns. All four of the guns were pure black, and looked brand new. Felix was aching to try the guns out as soon as possible, even though he hoped he wouldn't have to.

He placed all four guns on the desk next to Isaac--who ignored Felix as he talked on the phone--and then went back to grab sheaths for the handguns, as well as extra ammunition.

"T-ten minutes! You can't get here any faster?" Isaac sputtered. He looked up at Felix, who had removed his jacket to reveal a fairly tight, plain black T-shirt. He shot Isaac a look that said, "We don't _have_ ten minutes." Exasperated, Isaac stood up and said, "Look, just get here as fast as possible. Keep in mind that we may not live past five minutes." He stayed on the line for a few more seconds before hanging up.

"They're coming?" Felix asked. He picked up the other handgun sheath and placed it in Isaac's hand.

Isaac looked down at it and sighed. "Yeah, as soon as they can." He removed his yellow scarf off of his left arm and his jacket to reveal a long-sleeved white shirt that had an 'SGV' logo on it.

Felix noticed that the burn mark on Isaac's arm had not disappeared.

"Mode of transport?" he asked, taking his eyes off of the burn.

"Mm...she didn't say. Sorry, I didn't think to ask."

Felix put his jacket back on. "Doesn't matter, let's just keep our eyes on those cameras."

Isaac checked the monitors again and saw nothing new on the screen. "Okay," he said, slipping the holster straps on his shoulder and around his waist. The actual sheath ended up being positioned at their hips.

"Here, let me show you something," Felix said, reaching for a handgun. He held it up for Isaac to see, pointing to a little switch on the side above the trigger.

"Is that the safety?" Isaac asked. The Adept picked up his own gun and looked at the switch on it.

Felix shook his head. "Nope. This switches the gun from semi-automatic to fully automatic. That means you can just hold down the trigger and it'll keep on shooting."

Isaac smirked. "Great for a guy who needs more than one shot to hit his target like me, huh?"

"I suppose," Felix murmured. He checked his handgun to make sure it had full ammunition. "These have nineteen rounds a clip, so try to keep that in mind. It helps you reload faster if you know when you'll need to."

"Not like I'll use this much anyway. I'll hit more with the shotgun." Isaac put his handgun in the sheath and grabbed his shotgun. He slung it around his shoulder, and then gathered up some extra ammunition for both guns.

Felix continued gathering his equipment together, but his eyes were focused on the three monitors on the desk. There was still no sign of any approaching undead. But he knew they could appear at any time.

Isaac walked over to the small refrigerator and opened it out of curiosity. "What if they attack from the sky again?" he asked, moving things around. Soda, beer, frozen burritos--what was the point of having frozen food around if there wasn't even a microwave for it?

"Then we won't see them coming," sighed Felix. He sat down in the desk chair and stared hard at the camera monitors. The view was shifting now, presenting a different view of the areas they overlooked. "We'll just have to act fast."

"Hey..." Isaac reached into the fridge and pulled out a package that had a picture of a burrito on it. "These aren't burritos--they're dynamite!" he exclaimed.

Felix arched an eyebrow. "What?"

Isaac reached into the open package and pulled out a long red cylinder. "See?"

"Why in the world is there dynamite in there?" Felix asked with a stunned tone as he stood up and walked over to Isaac to take the package from him. He examined the contents and, just as Isaac said, there were five other sticks of dynamite inside the frozen burrito bag.

Isaac shrugged. "Cruel joke for anybody dumb enough to microwave these?"

"Or drunk enough," Felix muttered, glancing at the beer in the fridge.

"Same thing. I've got a lighter...we could use these, maybe?" Isaac spun the dynamite around between his gloved fingers.

Felix grinned. "You're just looking for anything to get out of using a gun, huh?"

"No," Isaac said bitterly, grabbing three sticks of dynamite for himself and pocketing them. "I just don't want some moronic guard to blow himself up while he's trying to get over late-night hunger pangs."

Felix smirked at the edge in Isaac's voice, and took the remaining three from the bag. "Whatever you say. Let's just be careful with these."

Isaac nodded and leaned against the wall next to the fridge, crossing his arms and looking apprehensive.

Felix stood next to the desk and watched the camera monitors intently.

Isaac's own glance alternated between the monitors and the metal door.

They were ready.

Or so they hoped.

One minute passed.

Isaac drew in a breath.

Felix let one out.

They were both anxious.

Two more minutes went by.

Neither of them spoke or moved.

_thump-thump-thump--_

"Oh no..." Isaac said quietly. His eyes went as wide as they could. "Not that, please."

Their hearts pounded heavily against their ribs.

_--thump-thump-THUMP--_

"_GRAAUGH!_"

The Adepts jumped upon hearing the shout of the ogre creature. It was only moments before they could see it crashing through the forest on the camera monitor, just as they remembered it. Skinless, gigantic, and very, very angry.

**_--THUMP-THUMP-THUMP-THUMP!_**

Ten zombies ran beside the towering creature. Their eye sockets appeared to glow, even on the gray monitor.

"Lock the door!" Felix shouted, standing up and pulling his shotgun off of his shoulder.

"That's not going to help!" Isaac replied, locking the door anyway. "They'll just tear this place down with tentacles or some other weird crap!"

Felix climbed under the desk and knelt there. "So get under here and our chances of being crushed won't be so high," he hissed as he reached up and grabbed the telephone and the computer monitor showing the other side of the guardhouse door.

"**_RAAAAAARRRRRRGGGHHHH!_**"

Isaac dove under the desk as the ground shook from the cry of the large beast outside. "What are you doing?" he asked, watching as Felix put the phone up to his ear.

"Ordering a pizza" Felix said, dialing in a number.

Snorting, Isaac said, "_Now_ who's making jokes at bad time?"

After listening for a moment, Felix tossed the phone away. "Actually, I was testing a theory," he said as he reached for his radio and flipped it on. He quickly shut it off again after the loud beeping sound wailed from it again.

Isaac pulled his shotgun off of his shoulder, preparing for the building to come falling down at any minute. "What theory?"

"Every time these guys have been around, my radio has stopped working." Felix put his radio away and then added, "Also, the phone doesn't work anymore. I think it's because they carry some sort of jamming device with them."

Isaac stared at Felix's radio. "What? Why in the world would the undead be carrying around something like that?"

"Nothing we can discuss now," Felix muttered, climbing to a position where he could move easier. He pointed to the computer monitor. "They're here."

Isaac glanced at the monitor. Just outside of the guardhouse, the large skinless ogre stood, pulling back his fist to ready an attack on the door. Only its torso and arms showed on the tiny screen. Felix and Isaac braced themselves as the ogre pulled its right fist back, and back, and back...

_FWOOO-**WHAAAAAAMMM!**_

Isaac and Felix both ducked and covered their heads just as the metal door and chunks of the wall flew into the opposite side of the guardhouse. Small pieces of debris bounced everywhere, hitting both of the Adepts hard. They flinched, but didn't move.

Once the debris had settled down, Felix straightened up to get a look at the door...

_THUNK!_

"Agh!"

And instead smacked his skull on the desk.

As Felix rubbed his aching head, Isaac smirked. "I love karma," he remarked. he climbed out from under the table and pressed his back to the wall behind the desk.

The ogre's fist had punched right through the door as if it were nothing. The skinless, thick hand and arm were still in the hole where the door had been, blocking any attempt to escape.

Felix joined Isaac at the wall, holding his shotgun in one hand. He and Isaac could hear the groans and hisses of the zombies from outside. The sounds sent even more shivers down their spines.

Felix's mind raced as it searched for a plan. Anything to get them out of that situation alive. They had firepower, but Felix didn't know if it would even affect the skinless behemoth. What else was there to rely on?

"Plan?" Isaac asked with gritted teeth. "There's no way I'm dying like this. I owe my mother a better death than this."

Felix bit his lip. Isaac's mom, Dora, had given up her life to save his. Isaac never told Felix how. All Felix knew is that it had happened earlier that year, just before he was assigned to be Isaac's squad leader.

He shook his head. "None. There's no escape--"

"Heads up!" Isaac shouted, pointing to the monitor next to Felix.

Felix looked at the monitor and watched as about five of the zombies ran up beside the ogre just outside the door, and waited impatiently for it to move its fist.

Both Felix and Isaac readied their shotguns.

They stood up slowly, breathing heavily as beads of sweat ran down their forehead.

The ogre pulled its large fist and arm back out of the area.

A snarl could be heard.

Isaac and Felix widened their eyes.

A dried zombie hand appeared, gripping the edge of the wall.

Then a zombie head appeared.

His seemingly hollow eye sockets scanned the room, immediately finding the two cornered Adepts, and then mysteriously flashed red.

The very air seemed to grow cold just from looking at a zombie from that close.

He opened his dry mouth and screeched, pulling himself into the room completely.

**_BLAM!_**

The zombie's head exploded, sending dry chunks of it across the room and against the wall behind where the body still stood.

His decapitated corpse fell backwards and landed on the ground hard. It twitched for a moment before finally laying still.

_C-CHINK_

Felix pumped his shotgun again, sending the empty shell of his previous shot to the floor.

"Good aim," Isaac said, visibly shaking from the loud, unexpected sound of Felix's shooting.

_"Hssssskkkkkk!"_

Two more zombies entered, stepping over their fallen comrade. The cold, dead fingers of other zombies could be seen gripping the side of the wall, trying to get in.

Isaac and Felix both shot at the doorway, taking out one of the zombies. The other one--a small teenager--moved towards Isaac.

_C-CHINK--**BLAM!**_

_SCRRSH!_

Instinct kicked in and Isaac shot the zombie in the face. Dried matter flew all over the back of the room.

And then three more zombies entered, hissing and snarling in anger.

"This is getting old fast," Felix shouted, unloading bullets into the closest zombies as quickly as he could.

"**_GRAAAAAAGGGHHHH!_**"

The entire room shook from the cry of the skinless ogre outside. Felix risked a glance at the monitor under the desk and saw that the great beast had reached up and grabbed the roof of the guard house.

The ogre began to lift up the ceiling, managing only to tear out a large chunk of the roof. The lights in the guardhouse flickered, and then went out completely.

"I can't see, Felix!" Isaac called out. The only illumination they had now was a few faint streams of moonlight filtering in from the doorway.

**_BLAM!_**

_SPLCH!_

Another zombie's head exploded all over the room following a bright flash from Felix's shotgun.

Felix glanced up at the ceiling and watched in horror as the entire thing began to be ripped away in portions by the ogre.

Moonlight poured into the room, lighting up the place enough for Felix and Isaac to see two large zombies standing in the doorway. Their red eyes flashed, glowing brightly in the darkness, and they both fought their way towards the Adepts over the bodies of their fallen allies.

**_BLAM! BLAM!_**

The rib cage of one exploded, and the other's head was blown in half. They both stumbled, but continued moving forward with difficulty.

_C-CHINK_

_--cli-click!_

Felix pulled the trigger a few more times before realizing that he had run out of ammo.

**_BLAM!_**

Isaac's barrel flashed brightly as he pulled the trigger of his gun, aiming right at the face of the closest zombie. The zombie cried out and fell over backwards, ceasing all movement a few seconds later.

Reloading his shotgun as quickly as possible, Felix called out, "That's the last one!" His eyes continued to switch from the half-destroyed ceiling to his gun.

_C-CHINK_

"_HISSSSSSSKKKK!_"

The remaining zombie, who was missing the top portion of his head from Felix's shotgun blast, drooled and reached out for Isaac.

Isaac pressed his back to the wall, aimed, and fired.

**_BLAM!_**

"_SCREEE!_"

The zombie was blown backwards from the force. What remained of his head was separated from his body by Isaac shooting him in the neck.

Seconds later, Felix finished reloading his shotgun. He pumped it once and leaped up onto the desk.

"We need to get out of here before this thing collapses on us!" he called out as he hopped down to the other side and headed out the now-clear doorway.

Isaac looked up at the ceiling and saw the large hands of the creature ripping apart large chunks of it from the skeleton. He held his breath as he jumped over the desk and followed Felix out of the guardhouse.

To their relief, the grassy area surrounding the guardhouse was empty with no zombies in sight. Now, only one last nuisance remained...

"_RAAAAAAAAHHH!_"

The Adepts whirled around, readying their shotguns.

The ogre had ripped off the last portion of the ceiling, and was now peering into the tiny guardhouse...completely oblivious that Felix and Isaac were now behind it.

**_BLAM!_**

Felix made the first shot. A small portion of the creature's back exploded in a spray of blood and muscle tissue.

Wasting no time, the Adepts continued to unload round after round. The bullets riddled the creature, ripping apart its back and side as it spun around to face the Adepts. It pounded its fists into the ground and roared, moving its face down towards the Adepts. Felix and Isaac widened their eyes at the ugly beast's face--blood and slime dripped from it to the ground.

_C-CHINK--C-CHINK_

Felix resumed shooting the creature right in the face. Bright flashes lit up the area from the gun, showing the blood spraying from the ogre's head.

"**_GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!_**

The screams of the skinless beast caused Felix to recoil back a little bit. He stumbled, but continued to unload his rounds into the ogre's face and chest.

"I'm all out!" Isaac cried. "I'm going to use the dynamite!"

"_Hurry!_" shouted Felix. He knew they both wouldn't have time to reload at the same moment.

Isaac pulled out a red stick of dynamite and a lighter, keeping his eyes on the creature as a defensive measure.

The ogre flailed around wildly as Felix blasted it in the face. The entire time, the Adepts took small steps backwards, distancing themselves from the large monster.

_--click!_

"I'm out too!" Felix slung his shotgun over his shoulder and pulled out his handgun. He ran up beside Isaac, giving him more protection as he fumbled to light the fuse on the dynamite, and flipped the switch on his gun from semi-automatic to automatic.

The creature recovered and pulled its hands away from its face. Blood gushed from the creature's body to the ground, soaking the tall grass beneath it.

Felix reached around Isaac's body and grabbed his handgun as well. Isaac ignored him as he tried to get his lighter to ignite with shaky hands.

"Keep working on that dynamite!" Felix ordered. He flipped the automatic switch on Isaac's gun as well.

Glaring at the Adepts, the skinless ogre grunted in rage and began running towards them.

Felix held the guns out in front of him.

He steadied his aim.

The beast snarled at Felix.

Felix inhaled.

And he pulled the triggers.

An endless stream of hot, streaking metal exploded in waves from the barrels.

_THUNK-SPLCH-THK-SCRCH-CHNK!_

They buried themselves into the face and chest of the creature. The area lit up with each rapid flash of light from the guns. Felix's teeth were clenched, and he gripped the guns as tightly as he could, relentless in his attack.

Blood sprayed with each shot. The handgun was doing less damage than the shotguns, but the relentless barrage of bullets forced the creature to stop in its tracks. It covered its face and cried out in rage and pain.

"_Okay!_" Isaac shouted, waving the lit dynamite for Felix to see. He slipped the lighter into his pocket and tossed the dynamite at the feet of the giant ogre.

Felix relaxed his fingers and the guns stopped firing. Breathing heavily, he took one last look at the ogre, flailing around and hiding its face. The dynamite stick's fuse sizzled as it slowly burned up.

"Felix, c'mon!" Isaac called, grabbing Felix by his arm and yanking him back. Felix turned and ran with his friend.

And ran.

Until...

**_BAAAAMMMMMM!_**

**_FWWWOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMM!_**

The heat of the explosion hit their backs, and they both dove forward into the tall grass, grunting in pain as they landed hard.

"**_GGGGRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHH!_**"

The Adepts covered their heads as chunks of dirt and the ogre's body landed around them.

And they stayed there, neither of them wishing to get up and face reality.

What seemed like hours later, Felix sat up and looked back at the damage they had done.

Small flames littered the area where the dynamite had exploded. Even more noticeable was the ogre, whose body had been ripped apart by the blast.

Felix looked away.

"Did we get him?" Isaac asked with a muffled voice. He still had his face in the dirt and grass.

"Yes."

They shared a moment of silence. Both of them were too exhausted to celebrate.

Then...

"Hey, Felix."

"Yeah?"

"Can I stay here for a while?"

"No."

"Thought so," murmured Isaac. He climbed to his feet and brushed himself off. Sighing, Felix stood up, sheathed his handgun, and held the other one out to Isaac.  
Sighing, Felix sheathed his handgun and held the other one out to Isaac.

Isaac took it, and then snorted. "Frozen burritos are deadly."

Felix couldn't help but smile. Combined with the feeling of joy that came with destroying the ogre and Isaac's lame joke, he felt really good.  
And then, to their great relief, they heard the sound of an approaching helicopter.

"Ah, gee, just in time," Isaac said sarcastically. Then he sighed. "I'm beginning to hate this job. I want a job where things go how they're supposed to."

Felix smirked. "Let me know if you find one."

The green SGV helicopter sent from HQ approached and landed near the guardhouse. A familiar figure jumped out as soon as it touched down: Garet, holding a shotgun of his own, surveying the battle-scarred area.

"Felix! Isaac!" he called when the two Adepts ran forward to the helicopter. "You guys okay?"

"Yes, yes, let's just get _home_," Isaac said as he climbed into the helicopter.

"They wanted to send a _jeep_. A _JEEP!_" Garet said, shaking his head. "I got there just in time, and I was like, 'No, you're gonna need something faster than that, and something with more _firepower_'. So I convinced them to send this helicopter, complete with rockets."

"Highly appreciated, Garet," Felix muttered as he climbed in next to Isaac.

Garet looked around the area again. "What did you guys _do_?" he asked, wrinkling his nose. He climbed in and shut the door behind him.

Moments later, the green helicopter ascended into the air and left the area behind for the city of Vale.

Most of the flames on the grassy field died out as the helicopter left. All was silent, except for the sound of approaching footsteps. A figure emerged from the forest and walked up to the dead ogre's corpse.

"...Vale," a voice muttered, watching as the helicopter flew off.

The remaining flames glowed just enough to illuminate the face of the man.

Agatio smiled to himself. "Heh, this is going to be fun." He raised his hand up in the air and ignited the tip of his fingers for two seconds--a signal to his troops.

From the trees, a horde of zombies appeared, running forward. Dozens at first, then hundreds, and soon thousands. All of them ran past Agatio at full speed, heading directly towards Vale. Winged creatures flapped up into the air, following in the wake of the land-bound monsters. The sky was filled with hundreds of them, all screeching in unison with the snarling zombies. The ground shook violently as, trailing behind the zombies, even more of the large, skinless ogres burst through the trees, dozens of them with eyes that showed their lust for destruction.

The very air around Agatio shimmered slightly, indicative of an invisible menace. Cloaked minions that remained silent slithered past their commander.

It was an embodiment of utter destruction.

A corner of Agatio's mouth twitched amusedly, and he followed at an unhurried pace behind his army. "I almost feel sorry for Vale," he said with a laugh.

* * *

**End:** _Chapter Two_

* * *


	3. Nightguest

**_Resident Evale_**  
**By Joker's Specter**

_**Chapter Three:** Nightguest_

**Whoa, that's strange. I updated after all this time! A sign of things to come? Maybe. This chapter isn't as action-packed, but it's a great set-up for things to come.**  
**-Joker**

* * *

_thwp-thwp-thwp-thwp-thwp-thwp_

Flying high over the grassy field below, the helicopter's blades sliced through the air. Felix pressed his forehead against the cold glass window, staring at Vale as it came into view.

"That's messed up," Garet exclaimed in awe. "Seriously?"

"Seriously," Isaac said. After they had boarded the helicopter and rested for a few minutes, he had explained to Garet what happened when he parted ways with the two Venus Adepts.

"Man... If anybody else had told me that story, I wouldn't believe it," said Garet, shaking his head and crossing his large arms. "I guess it's a good thing we were out there tonight, huh? If they're really headed for Vale, we might have been caught unaware."

Felix spoke for the first time since entering the helicopter. "I don't think we should relax just yet, Garet. This could be more trouble for us than we think. We need to be careful."

Garet shook his head. "Maybe, but I doubt they'll even get within a hundred feet of Vale's walls. Have you seen those snipers? They could shoot the fleas off Isaac here," he said with a grin, reaching over to ruffle Isaac's hair.

Isaac pushed Garet's hand away. "I'm not in the mood, Garet," he said without looking at his friend.

Garet's grin widened. "Oh, c'mon. I'm tired too, but let's be a little excited and optimistic here! We get to see those creeps get slaughtered by our defenses!"

Sighing, Felix turned back to the window. He couldn't deny the military power Vale had, as well as the top-notch defenses the city built up over the years. However, something just didn't sit right with him. He had a gut feeling that things weren't going to go as well as they hoped. Something about the creatures they encountered tonight felt...new.

"We'll arrive at your headquarters in less than two minutes," the pilot announced from up front.

Felix gazed down at the tall city walls that surrounded Vale. The high gray walls of Vale towered over most of the buildings, wrapping around the city on three sides. Directly behind the city sat the monstrous Mount Aleph, providing the fourth defensive wall. Ever since the walls were built, no attack on Vale had ever been successful.

Below the helicopter the military was frantically setting up the wall defenses. Snipers and turrets lined the top of the city barrier, covering against both ground and air attacks. New spotlights were flicking on every few minutes to scan the surrounding field and sky for the approaching threat.

"See?" Garet said, looking out his own window. "The defenses are already being reinforced. We're set, guys."

"I suppose so," Felix replied. He looked down at the shotgun on the seat beside him, thinking hard. Why did he feel so unsafe?

Attempting to take his mind off of things, Felix focused on the bright lights of the city. Despite having a large focus on military, Vale was a beautiful city. In recent years, the city had taken to mining deeper into Mount Aleph, discovering both material to reinforce the city walls as well as valuable minerals to sell. Mining gave people new jobs, as well as helped Vale blossom into what it was now. It also gave opposing cities reason to attack; the minerals were sought after by many.

_thwp-thwp-thwp-thwp-thwp-thwp-thwp_

Over the whirring sound of the helicopter, Felix could just barely hear the pilot requesting clearance to land-something the Venus Adept saw a little pointless for the only helicopter in sight, but was part of the SGV protocol. After a few moments the helicopter circled the building designated as the men's HQ, descended onto the roof, and powered down its engines while the adepts disembarked.

As the team walked across the roof of the five-story building, Felix was quick to remind Isaac that he should see a medical professional about where the zombie had grabbed him.

"I will, yeah," Isaac said firmly. He pulled his sleeve up to look at the red hand print again-something he had done several times in the helicopter-and sighed. "I give you permission to shoot me if this turns me into a zombie, Felix."

"What? Him? I'm your best friend! It should be me!" Garet said, putting on a hurt expression.

"Oh, ha-ha, Garet. Fine, you two can fight over it if it happens, but I get to eat the loser," Isaac said sarcastically with a smirk.

"I have some good spices I can recommend for Felix to wear," Garet grinned.

Felix resisted the urge to pistol-whip Garet with his handgun.

"Seriously though, if you turn into a zombie, I'm going to be pissed off at you," the Mars adept added as seriously as he could manage. "If you go out like that, there's no way I'm giving a eulogy at your funeral."

Felix opened the door to enter the building from the roof and walked in with Isaac and Garet close behind. "I suppose they could amputate your arm before it spreads..."

Garet and Isaac both exchanged glances. "Felix? Joking? When did Hell freeze over?" said a surprised Garet.

"Well, I wasn't joking, actually," Felix said simply. "Better an arm than your life, right?"

"Ech. What a mood killer, Felix. I almost don't feel like seeing any other zombies," Garet groaned. He glanced over at Isaac, who was studying his arm with a distant look in his eyes.

Speaking for the first time since they entered the building, Isaac said, "Felix _did_ make a joke earlier. That might interest you... Anyway, this is ruining my mood too. I'm a little concerned. I'll head over to the medical room first and see if Mia and I can figure out what this is and how to stop it. I'll catch up with you guys later."

Felix nodded, and Garet said, "Want me to come with? If they try to get a saw near your arm, I can set their pants on fire."

Isaac shook his head and quickly headed down a nearby stairway, waving half-heartedly as he disappeared.

Garet waited until Isaac was gone, then turned to Felix and continued walking with him down the white hallway, heading for the room that SGV members used for meetings and briefings. "Speaking strictly between the two of us, and as seriously as I can manage, I'm worried about what that might do to him."

"I know, Garet..." Felix said. "I am too, but it's nothing worth having three of us address when we're needed elsewhere."

Garet sighed quietly. "Yeah." He ran a gloved-hand through his hair. "After this whole thing is over, we should totally bother Piers for vacation time."

Felix allowed a smile. "That's one of the best plans I've heard all night."

**!-U- -U- -D- -D- -L-!  
!-R- -L- -R- -B- -A-!**

The meeting room of the SGV wasn't anything fancy, by most military standards. It looked more like a classroom than anything, except for a desk with a high-tech computer sitting on it. The computer was equipped to receive battlefield information as quickly as possible from outside sources. It allowed Piers to make hasty decisions on where to send or redirect his team.

A square table that had nine chairs around it was placed directly in the center of the room, taking up most of the space. Papers were usually scattered across the table at all times.

Piers and Jenna were arguing in the meeting room when Felix and Garet walked in.

"You're making a lousy call, Piers, and you know it," Jenna accused with fire in her voice. Her auburn hair looked like a mess, as if she had just gone to Hell and came back with their finest hairstyle. "We can't bring her around us! It'd be too dangerous-especially during a time like this! Not to mention, we should be out there again."

The blue-haired man standing at the front of the room sighed. His eyes were running over a whiteboard that was attached to the wall. "I recognize your points, Jenna, and they're valid. But a special request from the Governor is a special request," he said with a soft tone. "Do you understand your orders?"

Felix saw that his younger sister wanted to protest more, but she knew better of it. Once Piers made up his mind there was no changing it.

"Yes sir," she replied, defeated. It was then she first noticed Felix and Garet in the doorway with her peripheral vision.

"Did we come at a bad time?" Garet asked, coughing.

_WHUMP!_

Jenna practically sailed across the room and latched onto Felix. "Felix! You're okay!" she squealed. "Thank goodness! Feizhi told me you were in trouble when Piers, Mia and I got back."

Feizhi was the purple-haired oriental receptionist stationed on the first floor of the building. She had been the one who Isaac spoke with during their emergency on the phone.

"I'm okay," Felix said after stumbling, giving his sister a gentle hug and then releasing her. "I can't speak for Isaac, though."

Piers looked up at the two for the first time, taking his attention away from the information he had on the whiteboard. "What happened to Isaac?" he asked, voice thick with concern.

Jenna backed up and put a hand to her mouth.

Garet held up a hand to calm both of them down. "Isaac's walking. You two should know Felix has a way of making things sound bad," he said, giving Felix a hard look.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Jenna raised her hand to her forehead and ran her fingers through her hair, attempting to straighten it. "So he's okay," she said in more of a statement than a question.

"For the most part. We had a weird night," Felix muttered, avoiding the awkward stares from his teammates. "Speaking of weird nights, what happened to you?"

Jenna tried to straighten her hair again. "While we were out on our mission, Piers and I came across a fight between two women. He had me break it up."

"That's what I would've done," Garet said with a yawn. "Never try to break up a catfight. You'll come out worse than they will."

A glint appeared in Jenna's eye and she smirked. "That would have been the case, had I not used my psynergy."

Garet and Felix were definitely interested in what she had to say now. They didn't envy the poor souls who wound up on the wrong side of Jenna's psynergy.

"But enough about me. Where's Isaac?" Jenna said, effectively changing the subject.

"He's in the medical wing right now," Felix said. "Mia should be there, right?"

"Correct," Piers said, turning back to peruse the information in front of him. Felix saw that most of it had to do with an unrelated mission. Most likely the one Piers and Jenna had been on previously. "We've all been called back to HQ. The Governor wants us here."

Felix was a little surprised to hear that. "Why? The city is about to be attacked. If we were out there helping, we could cut our losses."

Garet rolled his eyes. "I keep telling him we'll be just fine. The guy won't seem to quit with the whole, 'We're doomed!' shtick."

An elbow found its way into Garet's ribs.

"I'm concerned too, but it's like I've been telling Jenna-orders are orders. The only reason we exist as a team is because the Governor's been so kind to us," Piers said casually. He looked down at a map on the table, studying it and marking it with a red pen.

"I just don't think we've seen all of their tricks," Felix replied with a hushed tone. He knew just as well as Jenna that Piers wouldn't change his mind. By the sound of things, he _couldn't_. If the Governor was calling the shots, then that was the end of it until something drastic happened.

A hand slapped Felix's back firmly. Garet grinned at his squad leader and said with confidence, "The whole town is scrambling to defend against this. We know it's not a simple human army. Zombies have tricks-the first one being they can get back up after taking devastating blows. That's easy-we aim for the heads. We learn, Felix. We _adapt_. Vale will be okay."

Felix could only shrug at that. There was no sense in discussing it anymore. Truthfully, he didn't know what they could do differently from what was already being set up. If all of the military was positioned to counter-strike and defend, then what more was there to do, except send the SGV out?

"Jenna, please, attend to your orders," Piers said softly. "I'll keep in contact with the forces on the walls. We'll know everything that goes on."

A grumble escaped Jenna's mouth. "Well, can I at least check in on Isaac before I go out? Make sure he's okay?"

"That's fine, just make it quick," Piers said. He walked over to a desk with a computer, a phone, and a walkie-talkie sitting at it. "As for you Felix, I'd like an explanation on what went on out there. I know Garet's story, but not yours or Isaac's.

"Do you want it in writing?"

Piers shook his head and leaned back in his desk, kicking his boots up and reclining casually. "No, by ear will do. If I need a hard copy later, we can get to that another time."

Felix walked over to a chair, spun it around, and sat in it, facing Piers.

"Garet, I assume Isaac and Felix has told you what they went through?"

Garet nodded, still standing at the door. He knew what was coming.

"What's ma job, boss? You want I should knock some teef out?" he said with a rough mafia accent.

"Your orders as of right now are to take the report of what happened in Vault over to the Governor about the treaty. As soon as you're finished with that, come back here immediately."

Felix had almost forgotten about the treaty with Vault. It was strange of him to not remember that, considering it had been the only part of the evening that went smoothly. Vault had signed without a hitch. An alliance with Vale was a powerful thing to have on anybody's side.

"Yes sir," Garet said with a graceful bow. It looked official, but it was really Garet's way of joking with Piers.

In return, Piers jokingly saluted Garet. Satisfied, the large Mars adept took that as his cue to exit the briefing room and carry out his orders.

Piers shook his head. "I'm glad somebody is having fun," he said with a smile. The Mercury Adept locked his eyes on the computer monitor, then added, "So, let's hear from when Garet left your company."

Felix went on to explain all of the important intel from his and Isaac's rough escapade through the forest, and ended when the helicopter returned with Garet to retrieve them. Piers looked at Felix a few times during the recollection, but for the most part his eyes stayed on the monitor, keeping an eye on the reports coming in from Vale.

"My biggest concern," Felix said when he finished his telling of the events, "is that we don't know how large the army is. The only time I had any glimpse of the full army was before we entered the forest, and the hills and darkness were blocking most views of the creatures."

Piers raised an eyebrow, locking his yellow eyes on Felix. "That's definitely a concern. What would you suggest? An air sweep to see what we can come up with?"

Felix shook his brunette head, eyes down in concentration. "No, not that... They have aerial creatures. I'm not sure what they are, but they looked deadly. I think that would be a loss for sure if we sent a lone helicopter out there."

"I don't see what other option we have," Piers said quietly, going back to the monitor. "It looks like the defenses are nearing completion. In just a moment, we'll have monitor access to any unit that's carrying a surveillance camera on their helmets, or any that they may have been smart enough to set up on a tripod."

"Can I get that in my office?" Felix asked, leaning over the desk to try to see the monitor.

Piers gripped the monitor in both hands and turned it so Felix could get a look. "If I send you the feed, yeah, but you'll be a few minutes behind the live moments. Just stay here-you can watch it with me for now."

Felix moved his chair over so he was able to sit and view the monitor. So far, the monitor just showed numbers, graphs, and a little map. Most of it made zero sense to Felix without him having time to study it. He expected it told Piers just how many units were active and where they were positioned.

_blp!_

Suddenly, an icon popped up in the top right corner. "Ah, here we go," Piers said, clicking on it. A row of numbers appeared on the bottom of the screen, and a video image started playing, filling the rest of the screen. It was of a stationary camera, aimed at the field outside of Vale's gate.

"How many different views can we get?" Felix asked, looking at the numbers at the bottom.

"Looks like we have...forty-five," Piers said happily. "That's better than I thought it would be. The military isn't cutting any corners here."

Felix looked from Piers to the monitor, then back to his leader again. "Piers...why are we ordered to stay inside HQ? It doesn't make sense to me, either."

Piers sighed and looked at Felix with a soft expression. His yellow eyes studied his subordinate and friend. "I know it's rough," he said after a moment. "Nobody likes the situation. But the Governor is actually scared, believe it or not."

"All the more reason to have us out there," Felix stated firmly.

The Mercury adept shook his head. "He doesn't think so. He wants us here so we can protect his daughter."

Felix thought back to what he heard between Piers and Jenna when he and Garet first walked in to the meeting room. He clearly remembered Jenna saying something about bringing a girl to HQ. "You don't mean..."

"We're on guard duty," Piers said with a defeated tone.

"Please tell me you at least argued against it."

A nod. "I did. The Governor is absolutely paranoid, though. We're to protect his daughter until everything blows over."

Felix raised his eyebrow. Something didn't sit right with him. "He's more concerned with his daughter than himself? That's new."

Piers nodded again. "I was as surprised as you are," he said. The blue-haired man began switching between perspectives on the monitor. The video showed different views of the field, the walls, and helmet views of various soldiers. several of the cameras were even showing the zoomed-in images of the sniper rifles, aimed at the hills in the distance.

One of those sniper rifle views is where they got their first glimpse of the enemy.

Piers pointed to the monitor. "Is that...?"

Felix leaned in closer.

Red eyes. Always the red eyes.

"That's them," Felix affirmed.

Dozens of zombies scrambled over the hill in the distance. Their speed was incredible. Felix had felt like he was imagining things when he first watched them, but looking at them now...

He shivered.

_SKRRRSH-_

The radio sitting next to Piers began to crackle. "Piers, we've got eyes on the enemy. Snipers are picking them up," spoke a deep voice from the black two-way radio.

Piers grabbed the radio. "I see it. Best of luck, commander. Keep me updated," he replied loudly.

Felix shook his head. "There were more than that. That's not right."

"How many more?" Piers asked, eyes glued to the rushing undead.

"I don't know... Hundreds, maybe thousands," Felix said, unsure of himself. It could have been millions for all he knew.

"And how many did you say you dispatched?"

Felix was silent for a moment as he watched the zombies. Even through a camera on a sniper scope he could see the glowing red eyes. It made him uneasy. "Forty or fifty since our first encounter, maybe. Our Psynergy took out quite a few during some moments."

Piers grabbed the walkie-talkie again. "Commander, my intel shows that there are definitely more out there. I suggest keeping vision on all angles, and don't ignore watching the sky; they have aerial units to drop ground forces with."

_SKRRRSH-_

"I hate the undead," was the Commander's only reply.

That prompted a smile from Piers. "Light-hearted. He certainly feels safe. I just wish I could say the same."

"Agreed," Felix muttered, still watching the monitor. The zombies were running with such speed that the Venus adept was amazed their bodies weren't crumbling apart.

Suddenly, dozens of new zombies appeared over the hill. This time, they weren't alone.

Felix's muscles tightened when a familiar figure appeared.

"Round two," Piers murmured. "Is that the ogre-like creature you mentioned?"

"Yes. I didn't even think there might be more of those things. That makes me even more nervous," Felix admitted.

Piers put a calming hand on Felix's shoulder. "Relax. Worst case scenario, they get to our remote mines and we trigger them. Nothing walking can get past that."

Felix thought back to the dynamite he and Isaac found. It certainly did the trick on the last giant monster they encountered. Certainly land mines would be just as sufficient.

It sounded reasonable, but why did he still have a bad feeling?

His thoughts were cut short when Jenna reappeared in the room. Trailing behind her was a young teenage girl a head shorter than Felix's sister.

"Reporting in," Jenna said. "I've brought Sheba."

The blonde-haired Sheba appeared just like Felix imagined the Governor's daughter to look; arrogant. Her clothes screamed "I'm rich-pamper me," and the way she strode into the room and folded her arms didn't do much for her image either.

"This is ridiculous," Sheba said, cementing the image Felix had of her. She glared at the two men sitting at the computer desk with her purple eyes. "I'm supposed to stay here during this whole thing?"

Piers stood up. "Welcome, Sheba. I hope you find safety in our company," he said pleasantly.

Sheba rolled her eyes. "I feel safe anywhere in Vale. Nothing's going to get through! My father's just being ridiculous. If you call him up and tell him you have more important things to do, then we can all get on with our lives and out of this ridiculous business."

She apparently liked to use the word "ridiculous", too, Felix thought to himself.

Clearing his throat, Piers said, "'Ridiculous' or not, Sheba, Governor Babi ordered us to guard you inside this building, despite me arguing the point against it. We'll have to manage until things calm down."

"Ugh!" Sheba groaned angrily. "Do you at least have a TV somewhere?"

Jenna met Felix's eyes and mouthed, "Wow", silently behind the conceited girl.

Felix mentally repeated that in his head every time a sentence came out of Sheba's mouth. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if the undead got her.

"Jenna, escort Sheba to the break room and remain with her there. Don't leave her side unless another team member takes your place with direct orders from me," Piers commanded.

"I'm not a baby," Sheba murmured. "I can find the place myself."

Jenna sighed, gave Piers a disapproving look, then grabbed Sheba by the collar of her shirt. "C'mon your highness." The Mars adept dragged Sheba out of the room, all while the teen was screaming obscenities at her.

Felix and Piers exchanged glances, then went back to the bright monitor without another word.

**!-U- -U- -D- -D- -L-!  
!-R- -L- -R- -B- -A-!**

The first waves of undead did not get past Vale's defenses. They were obliterated by a few well-placed sniper shots, right through their dried, crusty skulls. Even the skinless ogre was taken down quickly.

_CRCK-!_

A zombie's head shattered from a sniper round.

"Bam!" Garet shouted. "That was awesome!"

Seated around the table were all of the SGV members, except for Jenna and Feizhi. Jenna was still occupied with Sheba in the break room, and Feizhi remained at the receptionist desk on the first floor. Garet had returned from completing his orders a few minutes after Mia and Isaac had come up from the medical room.

Piers had set up the computer images to be fed onto a large monitor that raised up over the whiteboard, giving all of the team an enlarged view of the carnage. The usually brightly lit room was dim, with only the monitor and screen giving off a glow.

"Awesome, just like all the others, right Garet?" Isaac muttered sluggishly. "Pipe down, will ya?" To everyone sitting at the table, the Venus adept sounded like an angry drunk.

A blue-haired girl sitting beside Isaac gave an apologetic look around the table. "I had to drug him," Mia explained. "It was either that, or put him out."

"You picked the right choice," Piers said graciously. "Will he recover shortly?"

Mia nodded. "He'll come around in less than an hour. I did what I could for his arm. Only time will tell if anything I did helped..."

Felix silently wished to himself that Mia had indeed corrected the problem. If something was going to happen to Isaac's arm, that meant the zombies had another new trick that the Valeans were unprepared for. His eyes focused on Isaac's arm, which was bandaged around most of his forearm.

"That's good enough for now," Piers said, eyes constantly scanning the video screen.

Beside Piers, Ivan was holding up some report sheets. "I've been running the numbers, Piers," he spoke up quietly. Despite being on the SGV, Ivan wasn't a field member. He remained at HQ, like Feizhi, to run things when everybody was out. He also had a knack for creating simulation programs that helped the team figure out their odds on a mission.

Piers looked to the little blonde Venus adept. Ivan was the youngest of the group. If it weren't for his intelligence and his abilities, he wouldn't even be on the team due to his age. Piers had even told him that several times. "What'd you come up with?"

Ivan seemed to hesitate. "I don't have all of the variables, to be honest with you. Creature types are unknown, and we don't know their tactics yet. But to put it simply, I'm worried. The simulations didn't come out good for us if the numbers you gave me were accurate."

Everybody had their attention on Ivan now, except for Garet, who was dancing in front of the screen and faking shots at the oncoming zombies as their heads were ripped apart from the snipers.

"Where did you figure us in?" Piers inquired.

Ivan pointed down to the floor. "Right here, of course. We're on orders, correct?"

"Correct," Piers confirmed. He ran his yellow eyes over the reports Ivan had in front of him. "We'll just have to keep an eye on things," he finally said after a few minutes. "So far, the undead aren't doing anything very intelligent."

The team turned their attention back to the monitor. Isaac yelled at Garet to sit down while drool ran out of his mouth.

"Please tell me he's almost done acting like my grandpa," Garet muttered, knitting his eyebrows together.

Mia shrugged. "Sorry, I can't say for sure."

Garet returned unhappily to his seat.

_SKSSHHHH-_

"-iers, switch view to the west wall," the radio crackled.

"Switching now," Piers replied. He then moved to the computer desk and flipped through views until he came to one that focused on the eastern field, outside of Vale. The field was half a mile long, and ended at a tree line that ran into a dense forest.

"What in Weyard are they doing?" Garet asked, speaking what was on everybody's mind.

Standing just outside of the entrance to the forest was a group of about two hundred zombies.

They weren't moving.

Felix felt like the zombies were staring right at him.

_KSSSHH-_

"We've got a few of them rushing the entrance, and then that group positioned outside the western wall. That's our only sign of them," came a garbled voice from the radio.

Piers quickly flipped through all of the views available to the adepts, confirming the military's information.

"I don't get it. What are they doing?" Ivan asked. "This attack is horrible, even for the undead."

"They have no brains, Ivan," Garet said, still excited over the live feed they were watching.

_CRACCKK!_

A sniper round made a zombie's head explode, proving the large Mars adept's point.

Felix crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. "I'm with Ivan on this one. With the amount of undead we saw out there, somebody's leading them. With what Isaac and I saw in the forest...they're not stupid, either. We're definitely overlooking something."

"But what?" Ivan murmured silently, mostly to himself. He closed his eyes and lowered his head, which was the sign that he was doing some deep thinking.

_CRACK!_

"Whoo! Look at that one explode!" Garet exclaimed, jumping to his feet again. "You're all over-thinking this. The rest of them probably just got scared, or are waiting to see what happens to these eager little guys." He motioned to the few remaining creature rushing the front gate.

"So far we've only seen the zombies and the ogre-like creatures," Piers mentioned. "We still haven't seen those flying things. I expect if there's another attack wave, it'll involve them."

Felix nodded. "Most likely."

"I'd like to see what they look like. Maybe I can figure out where they came from," Ivan said to himself, eyes still closed. "We know the zombies are simply animated corpses. In most cases, they're imbued with a natural desire to do as the necromancer who raised them commands."

Mia looked a little sick as the backside of a not-so-decayed zombie's head exploded on the screen.

"I should've trained to be a sniper," Garet said in awe.

"The ogre creatures," Ivan continued, "are a little trickier. Definitely a new creature. They seem to be the tanks of the army. I'd say they're a mix of necromancy of mutation. Somebody's been very busy experimenting..."

Felix leaned forward. "Actually, that makes a lot of sense. Those giants can sprout tentacles out of their backs and use them as if they're new limbs."

Ivan's eyes popped open. "You saw that?" he asked, amazed. "That's definitely a new one to me..."

"Isaac and I fought it. Its back ripped open and the tentacles shot out, then wrapped around the trees surrounding us, caging us in."

"Weird," Mia said. "I've never heard of something just splitting itself open like that..."

"Like I said, it must be mutation," Ivan stated confidently. "Someone's been messing with genetics, most likely. Those may have been regular ogres at one time, and now..."

Garet jumped into the conversation. "Let's call them Super Ogres."

As much as Felix wanted to disagree, he had to admit it wouldn't be something easy to forget.

"Super Ugly Ogres," Isaac muttered as he wrapped the yellow scarf he carried everywhere with him around his face. "Inconsiderate jerk, he exploded all over me."

Everybody ignored Isaac.

"These so-called Super Ogres...how many have we seen so far?" Ivan asked.

Piers spoke up. "Felix and Isaac destroyed one. Since then, the defenses have taken down three."

"If we were to pretend there was one for every, oh...hundred zombies..." Ivan muttered quietly. "Then we're looking at dozens more, if the intel is correct."

_SKSSSSHHHH-!_

"-omething strange here!"

The radio crackled and hissed. In between the static, sounds of screaming, cursing, and gunfire could be heard.

Everybody's head snapped to the radio next to Piers at the desk.

Piers grabbed the two-way radio and immediately said, "Repeat that last message, Commander."

The radio was silent for a few intense minutes. Piers wasted no time switching between views on the screen. He stopped when a wall-mounted camera showed what appeared to be the torso of a sniper falling to the field below the wall.

Mia gasped.

"What's going on?" Garet asked, eyes moving from the screen to Piers. He was noticeably less enthusiastic when the last few zombies were picked off in the distance.

"Was that a human body we just saw? Not a zombie?" Mia asked frantically, eyes wide.

Ivan grimaced. "Half of one, anyway..."

Felix jumped to his feet. "Something went wrong!"

Piers rose to his feet as well. "Mia, go check on Jenna and Sheba. Stay there until I get you."

As Mia left the room, she kept her eyes away from the screen as Piers shifted perspectives again.

"There!" Ivan said. "Bottom right corner."

A stationary camera that was likely on a tripod was aimed down at the field. However, a small portion of the image contained a small area of the floor of the defensive wall around Vale, where the snipers were positioned.

A man's head was in view, resting on the hard flooring of the barrier. Just his head, with nothing else attached.

Garet averted his eyes. Seeing zombies die was one thing. This was something else entirely.

"Piers! We need to get out there!" Felix yelled.

With the radio still in hand, Piers clicked the button down. "Commander, do you read me?"

_SSSKKKSSSHHH-_

Other than a messy reply that couldn't be deciphered, nothing else could be heard.

"They're _jamming_ it, Piers. If any of them are within range of his radio, he can't contact us," Felix said angrily. "It's the same thing as before."

Piers' eyes were focused on the monitor. "We're losing men rapidly. It started out with just a few, but now..."

"But what's killing them?" Ivan asked, watching the screen. It was still on the feed that showed the beheaded man. "I didn't see anything."

Piers switched views again. He stopped on a camera that showed the entire gate-side wall. Snipers were oblivious to the danger they were in, still aiming their rifles toward the field.

Suddenly, one of the snipers had his arms ripped off. His screams immediately alerted several other snipers near him.

Ivan practically fell off his seat. "What was that?"

Garet sneaked a peek, but instantly regretted doing so. His stomach heaved, and he ran out of the room.

The remaining team watched as the man fell to his knees, no longer having energy after losing so much blood. Only a few seconds had passed, but it was just enough.

Blood sprayed, and the man's head rolled off his shoulders and hit the walkway. The rest of his body soon followed.

"_They're cloaked!_" Ivan practically yelled. Felix had never heard him raise his voice before. "See the distortion in the air in front of him? There's something cloaked on the walkway!"

The killings were finally getting around the entire wall, and soon every sniper was alerted to the danger.

"Now they notice," Isaac blurted, barely coherent.

"If their radios were jammed, they didn't get the warning in time..." Ivan said quietly, shocked at what he was seeing. "Even if other military personnel are watching this feed, they couldn't have contacted the snipers."

"_Piers_!" Felix shouted, not wanting to waste any more time. "Permission to leave the building, sir!"

Piers moved away from behind the desk. "Permission denied. Ivan, you watch the monitor. Contact Governor Babi and explain the situation," the blue-haired man said. Before Felix could yell at him again, he walked up and grabbed Felix by the shoulder. "Come with me."

Now that Piers was finally in action, Felix kept his mouth shut and followed his team leader out into the hallway.

"Go to the break room and get Mia and Sheba. Bring Feizhi up here, too. If things get worse, arm yourselves, and don't let Sheba out of your sight," Piers said as they hastily moved to the stairs.

"But what about-?"

"I'm taking Jenna out with me." Piers explained. Then he stopped in the middle of the stairway and looked Felix right in the eye. "Give Isaac thirty minutes to recover from the drugs, then have Mia check his arm. If he can still fight, send him out with Garet to the the center of Vale. If things are bad enough, have them proceed to the front lines. Otherwise, they're to keep an eye out in the center district."

"Piers, send me out instead. You _know_ I can be more help out there than Isaac and Garet!" Felix protested.

Piers shook his head. "Felix, I want you to understand this. Sheba is my number one priority right now. You're the best man I've got. She is not to leave your sight. You are her protector until this is over. Do _not_ leave this building unless it's been compromised."

"Piers, just let me-"

"Do you understand my orders, Felix?" Piers inquired in a low, rough voice.

Felix sighed, breaking eye-contact and lowering his brown eyes. "Yes sir..."

"You're to put Sheba's life before anybody's, including your own."

"Yes, sir."

Piers nodded, studying Felix's face with his yellow eyes. "Very well. I'll grab Jenna and send the other girls up. Find Garet and keep him nearby. I'll try to stay in touch," he said, a little bit softer.

"Understood," was all Felix said.

"Good. Let's pray to the Gods that whatever is killing those soldiers doesn't let anything else in."

And then the Mercury adept was gone.

**!-U- -U- -D- -D- -L-!  
!-R- -L- -R- -B- -A-!**

"Next," Felix said.

_clk_

The mouse clicked as Ivan switched to the next camera view.

"Next."

_clk_

"Next.

_clk_

"I just don't get it..." Garet said in a low voice. He looked pale when Felix originally found him in the bathroom cleaning himself up. The color was just barely returning to his face.

"They've got some form of cloaking device. Or maybe it's a new species... I just can't say for sure right now," Ivan said quietly.

"Next."

_clk_

The adepts had since turned the lights on and the large screen off, and instead just used the small computer monitor to view the feed. Ivan and Felix were sitting behind the desk, going over whatever they could see to study the new threat.

"These things you say that are cloaked. Are they in the city?" Feizhi asked in her awkward English. She had taken a seat at the table, along with Mia, Garet, Isaac, and the much more reserved Sheba. Now that Valeans were actually dying, she wasn't quite as cocky as before. Next to her, Mia was sitting quietly, checking Isaac's arm every few minutes. Isaac appeared to be recovering smoothly from the drugs, while cross the table Garet looked like he had seen better days.

Ivan squinted at the screen, taking in every detail in just a few seconds. "Hard to say..." the young Jupiter adept said. "I can't get in contact with anybody on the wall, but it looks like there's a few who've wised up to the invisible things. They've changed out their regular scopes to infrared."

"Infrared?" Sheba asked, oblivious to most of the technology that came with warfare.

"It allows them to see heat signatures. If these invisible things give off heat, it's like seeing them in broad daylight," Ivan explained, switching to the next image.

"Wait, stop here," Felix said. "This is perfect."

"Yep, just like I thought. Infrared," Ivan said proudly.

The feed on the computer showed the camera of a sniper scope, but instead of a regular view, the coloring was a mix of blues and reds.

Whoever was holding the rifle was scanning the walkway. Most of the snipers had been killed off, but the few that remained were being very cautious now.

"If I could just see one of them like this..." Ivan whispered to himself.

Felix pointed to the screen with a gloved hand. "I think you're about to get your wish."

A reddish blob suddenly came into focus, crawling along close to the floor of the walkway with inhuman speed. Its jerky movements made its actions look more like an insect than anything. Its appearance was that of a man, but the arms were elongated, and each finger looked to be about a foot long, ending with what was sure to be a sharp point.

The brightest part of its heat signature were its eyes.

"I've...I've never seen anything like that."

The sniper took a couple of quick shots and finished the creature off, sending a red splash all over the ground. The infrared picked up the puddle of blood as it pooled around the creature.

"How many snipers are left on the wall?" Isaac asked, holding his head with his eyes shut. His comprehension had started to return.

"Twenty-four," Ivan said as he checked the numbers. Each unit positioned on the walkway was fitted with detectors that let tacticians know who was still alive in a battle. "Down from fifty-seven from before."

Feizhi shuddered. "Are they not going to be sending more people to fight?" she asked.

Ivan shrugged and said "I let the Governor know, so he should be setting it up. If the soldiers on the wall had their radios jammed, there was no way they could call for back-up, and I don't think anybody else watching the feeds caught it before we did."

"My father will take care of everything," Sheba said smugly.

Ignoring Sheba, Ivan shook his blonde head and added in amazement, "These creatures really thought of everything. I still can't figure out how they got up on the wall."

Garet stood up, looking much fiercer than Felix saw him ten minutes ago. "They didn't think of us. Piers and Jenna are going to clean up that mess, and then when Isaac and I get out there, we'll take care of the leftovers," he said with a crooked grin.

Isaac casually held up his hand to receive the high-five he knew Garet was wanting.

_slap!_

"Hopefully whoever set this whole thing up shows their face sooner or later," Garet added. "I'd like to show him how to kill a zombie by using his head as an example."

Isaac made sure to raise his hand again.

_SLAP!_

"Ow, Garet. Not so hard."

"Ridiculous. I'm being protected by morons," groaned Sheba.

While the sniper rifle was constantly swiveling around, checking for more cloaked creatures, Felix got an eerie feeling down his spine. He wasn't sure what caused it, but he had a thought that he needed to act on.

"Ivan...check the gate-side cameras. One that shows the field," Felix requested.

Ivan immediately caught on. "You don't think..." He didn't finish his sentence as he rapidly clicked through the images, finding one they wanted.

Ten seconds later, they found it.

Their jaws dropped.

"I _knew_ it..."

"I don't think Piers and Jenna will be enough..." Ivan said, stunned.

Mia spoke for the first time in a while. "What? What do you see?" she asked, her voice shaking. She had apparently caught on the fastest out of the group seated at the table.

Spread across the field were thousands of undead creatures. Zombies, Super Ogres, and many that Felix had never seen before in his life.

Flying above their heads, the clear night sky was blackened by a swarm of leathery creatures.

It was as if Hell itself had opened up and waged war against Vale.

Every creature in sight was advancing through the field toward the large metal gate of the city.

"Felix...what are we going to do?" Ivan asked, voice quivering like Mia's. Another first that Felix heard from Ivan.

The Venus adept stared at the screen. "I...I don't know..." he admitted. Against an army that size, and with their defenses being picked apart from the inside, what could they do?

Every single creature seemed to look right into Felix's soul with their piercing red eyes, mocking his situation.

For the first time in Felix's life, he felt like he had no other option but to die.

* * *

**End:** _Chapter Three_


End file.
